Pump-plunger



A. S. MACKENZIE.

PUMP PLUNGER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 31, 1919.

Patented May 4, 1920.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER s. MACKENZIE, or nou's'roiv; TEX-AS, ASSIGNOR T0 TEXAS on.WELL PUMP ooMrA vY, 0E HOUSTON, TEXAS, an assocra'rron.

PUMP-PLUNGER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1920.

Application filed May 31, 1919. Serial No. 300,834.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER S. MAC- KENZIE, a citizen of the UnitedStates,.residing at Houston, Harris county, Texas, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in Pump-Plungers, of which. thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame. I

My invention relates to an improvement in plungers for deep wellreciprocating pumps. It has particular application to pumps of thischaracter for use in oil or water wells where the liquid is mixed withsand.

One object of my invention is to provide a pump plunger which has anautomati cally expansible means to take up wear which may occur in theworking parts due to sand or other abrasive substance, and to .thusconstantly maintain a tight fit between the plunger and the workingbarrel of the pump.

Another object is to provide a novel means of maintaining the plungervalve free of sand at all times so as to prevent-its becoming cloggedand thus retard or entirely prevent its action.

Other ob 'ects and advantages will be apparent from the more detaileddescription which follows and will be set forth with greaterparticularity in the claims.

Referring to the drawings forming a part of this specification andwherein like numerals are applied to like parts through out the views,Figure l is a central longitudinal section through the working barreland piston of my improved pump; Fig. 2 is a section of piston taken onthe line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a perspective view somewhat enlargedshowing the expanding sleeve employed in maintaining a tight fit betweenthe plunger and the working barrel.

In Fig. 1 I have shown my improved plunger inserted within a workingbarrel 1 of the pump. The plunger 2 is cylindrical in shape, having anupper interiorly threaded portion 3, for attachment to the lowerthreaded end 4: of the valve member 5. Said valve member is threaded atits upper end for attachment by means of the coupling member 6 to ahollow sucker rod, not shown.

The piston 2 is bored longitudinally at 7 to accommodate a free upwardcurrent of liquid when the piston is in operation. The lowerend of thepiston is beveled outwardly at 9 to better serve this purpose. A tightsliding contact is maintained between the piston and the working barrelby means of a .filled with large quantities of sand or other abrasivematerial two or more of these sleeves may be employed. I do not therefore wish to confine myself to any particular number.

These sleeves are seated within annular recesses 10 in the periphery ofthe plungerf In order that the sleeves may be automatically expansibleto take up the wear between the working barrel and the plunger, thecontacting faces between the sleeve and the plunger are inclined in bothdirections at each end, and at a point midway of the ends. By means ofthis provision there are three surfaces 11 inclined upwardly away fromthe center of the plunger and three similar surfaces 12 inclineddownwardly away from the center of the plunger. It is obvious, ofcourse, that there may be two or. more of these beveled surfaces, but inthis modification I have shown three. Between the inclined surfaces, thesleeve is cylindrical in shape.

In order that the close fit between the plunger and the working barrelmay be maintained and still allow for the expan sion of the sleeve, Ihave divided the sleeve longitudinally along regularly oil'set lines 13into a plurality of parts. The manner in which the lines 13 of divisionare oil'- ,set, as shown in Fig. 3, provides for maintaining a closurelongitudinally of the sleeve when the same is expanded and therebyprevent the passage of fluid past the same when the sleeve is inexpanded position. The manner of offsetting the lines as shown producesa plurality of horizontal sliding surfaces 14 which allow the sectionsof the sleeve to slide somewhat away from each other laterally and stillmaintain a tight closure along the horizontal portions. The efi'ect ofthis method of longitudinally dividing the sleeve in this mannerproduces a sort of mortise between the sections of the Sleeve andassists in maintaining the sections in proper alinement, and, at thesame time, prevents the opening of a longitudinal space for the passageof water when the sleeve is expanded. These sections are held in placein assembled position by means of a band of resilient wire 15 which fitstightly within a peripheral groove 16 within the outer surface of thesleeve. This spring allows a limited operative play of the parts but hassufficient resiliency to hold the sleeve assembled.

The valve member 5 at the upper end of the plunger forms at its lowerend a threaded plug that closes the upper end of the passage 7 withinthe plunger but allows an upward flow of the liquid by means of a seriesof branching passages or channels 17 leading from the upper end of thepassages 7 in an outwardly inclined direction to a beveled groove 18 inthe upper face of the plug. The member 5 is reduced in diameter at 20 atits upper end for attachment to the coupling 6 and is boredlongitudinally at 2-1 through this reduced portion to a point adjacentthe upper end of the plug portion.

The valve consists of an annular ring if) surrounding the reduced upperportion 20 and has its lower face 22 beveled to fit tightly within thegroove 18, and thus serves to close the outlet to the upper ends of thepassages 17 in the plug. This valve ring 19 has a limited upwardmovement on the down stroke of the plunger, the extent of its upwardmovement being determined by the coupling member 6 against which thering is adapted to contact.

In the operation of this plunger, the downward stroke of same will-causea cer tain amount of friction between the outer face of the plunger andthe working barrel. The friction upon the expanding sleeve 8 will tendto force the same upwardly relative to the plunger and the contact ofthe sleeve along the beveled faces 11 of the plunger will force thesleeve outwardly into still closer contact with. the side of the workingbarrel. When the plunger moves upward on the return stroke the actionwill be the same,--the friction between the work ing barrel and thesleeve will cause the sleeve to be forced downwardly relative to theplunger and the sliding contact between the sleeve, and the beveledsurfaces 12 will again force the'sleeve outwardly. In order to providefor a limited upward and downward stroke of the sleeve, the outerperiphcry of the plunger is grooved slightly at each end. of the sleeve,as shown at 23, this groove being just suflicient to allow movement toaccommodate the necessary expansion. of the sleeve.

The downward stroke of the plunger will serve to raise the valve ring19'from its seat and will allow the oil to move upwardly through thepassage 7 and the branching ducts 17 into the space above the plunger.On the return stroke of the plunger the valve will drop back into itsseat closing the passages 17 and raising the oil or other fluid withinthe pump barrel upwardly toward the surface.

If the fluid contains a large amount of sand or other foreign materialthe same will tend to settle around the valve ring 19 on the upwardstroke of the plunger and may even lodge about the valve to such anextent that, when the plunger is again forced downwardly, the valve willbe so tightly wedged as to allow very little, if any, fluid to findpassage past the same. In. order to overcome this tendency of the sandto lodge about the valve, the sucker rod is made hollow and the upperend of the valve member 20 is hollowed at 21 to allow water or otherfluid to be pumped downwardly through the sucker rod to the neighborhoodof the valve. The water finds an outlet from the inner passage 21.through laterally branching channels 24 to an annular groove 25 on theinner face of the valve ring 19 and from. this groove branching ductsallow the water to find an exit outwardly around the outer periphery ofthe valve ring so as to agitate and stir up the sand thus preventing itslodging about the valve. As will be seen in Fig. 1. the valve ring will.leave the passage 24 open on the down stroke of the plunger so that theflushing fluid will bev forced directly outward into the sand tending tolodge around the valve seat and thus keep it agitated; and. on theupward stroke, when the valve ring has settled into its seat, the waterwill find an outlet through the ducts 26 so as to continue the agitationof the sediment tending to clog the valve.

The plunger constituting the subject matter of my invention serves tomaintain a tight closure at all times between the plunger and theworking barrel as it will be obvious that the expanding sleeves 118 willserve to automatically close the space be tween the plunger and workingbarrel and to take up wear of the same caused by the pressure of sand orother abrasive material, for a long period. The wear on the outer faceof the plunger and the expanding rings will be about equal until theplunger has been worn down somewhat and then the eX pansion of the ringsonly will serve to maintain a tight closure. This will act for some timeto close the space between the plunger and working barrel until thefriction between the sleeve and the working barrel will be finallyinsufficient to cause the same to be forced either upward or downwardwith the working of the barrel, and when this occurs the plunger willhave to be withdrawn and new sleeves substituted.

The particular formation of the valve member in this invention also doesaway with the diiiiculty ordinarily experienced of clogging the barrelwith the settling sand contained in the fluid being pumped. Thecombination of the sand-proof valve and the expanding sleeves serves toprovide a plunger of much longer life than the ordinary plunger and inwhich the life of. the working barrel will also be materially prolonged.

Having thus dese 'ibed my invention, the further objects and advantagesof which will be clear without further description, what I claim as newand. desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a pump, a plunger, a longitudinally divided sleeve thereon,oppositely beveled surfaces on both ends of said sleeve fitting onbeveled surfaces on said plunger so that movement of said sleeve ineither vertical direction will cause said sleeve to expand by frictionalcontact with said pump.

2. In a pump, a plunger, a central channel therein, branching ductsleading from said channels to a valve seat, a valve ring closing saidchannels, and means for discharging fluid through the upper part of saidplunger and said valve for the purpose described.

3. In a pump, a plunger, a central channel therein, ducts leadlng'l'roin said channel through the upper end of said plunger, a.

valve ring closing said ducts, a hollow sucker rod on said plungerhaving discharge openings for projecting fluid through and around saidvalve ring to clear same of sand.

41. In a pump, a plunger, a plurality of peripheral recesses in saidplunger, an expansible sleeve having interior projections fitted in saidrecesses, the contacting surfaces of said sleeve and plunger being sobeveled adj acent both ends that a reciprocation of said plunger ineither direction will cause a uniform outward movement of both ends ofsaid sleeve.

5. In a pump, a plunger, an expanding sleeve thereon, a plurality oftapered surfaces on both ends of said plunger contacting with similarsurfaces on said sleeve, so that the reciprocation of said plunger, 00-operating with the inner surface of the pump barrel will cause saidsleeve to move axially of said plunger in either direction and expandsaid sleeve.

6. In a pump, a working barrel, a plunger reciprocable therein andhaving a plurality of integral tapered surfaces thereon, alongitudinally divided sleeve thereon adapted to fit on said taperedsurfaces and to be expanded equally at both ends by the reciprocation ofsaid plunger, into tight contact with said working barrel on both the upand the down strokes of said plunger.

7 In a pump, a Working barrel, a plunger therein, a longitudinallydivided sleeve on said plunger and means on said plunger and said sleevecoacting with said Working barrel to expand said sleeve at both ends oneither stroke of the plunger.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto afiix my signature this the 27 day ofMay, A. D.,

ALEXANDER S. MACKENZIE.

